You don't have to like the Grateful Dead to learn something from this story. I offer some ideas for all companies near the end of this post. But first, a little about this offering.

Coming in September is a gargantuan, beautifully designed Europe '72 Mega-Box Set containing every note of all 22 Europe 1972 shows on 60 discs.

The Dead's first tour outside of North America took them to all sorts of historic and unusual venues in England, Denmark, West Germany, France, Holland and even tiny Luxembourg. As a hedge against the costs of the nearly two-month trip, the Dead's label, Warner Bros., paid for the band to lug around a 16-track recorder to capture the entire tour.

It was these master recordings from which select tracks were used in the original album that all Deadheads love.

Jeffrey Norman of Mockingbird Mastering, who has been the primary mixer of Dead archival multi-track material for the past 15 years is working with Warner / Rhino, toiling many months over the 16-track masters from the tour. They are employing the Plangent Processes transfer and restoration tools, trying to get every show to sound "just exactly perfect" (as Bob Weir says) for this release. Mastering to HDCD specs is two-time Grammy-winning engineer David Glasser of Airshow Mastering.

The packaging, still being finalized, looks amazing.

At $450, this clearly will not be a box for everyone.

Some interesting marketing takeaways from this:

Put your best customers first
When you have serious fans of your products and services, you need to create something special just for them. A deluxe version. A special edition. More access. Better support. Seats in first-class. Tickets to the client conference. The list goes on. (How are you treating your best customers to something special?)

Make customers a part of the journey
The band and Rhino made fans a part of this effort. Due to the huge manufacturing costs Rhino needs to have 3,000 pre-orders before they even go into production. If they don't reach 3,000 by April 1st, the boxed set won't happen. Bringing customers into your early stage processes is an interesting way to build loyalty. (How are you making your customers true partners in success?)

Free drives fee
The shows from the 1972 European tour are available for free on the Web. The band allowed people to record and share their music. But these versions, with months and months of high-tech sound enhancement are worth paying for.(What are you giving away for free in order to drive fans?)

Whenever I read David's posts on the Grateful Dead's marketing strategies I more often than not see a way to apply the same strategy to my industries of focus ... and here is one idea .... HOLIDAY COMPANIES who move 100's thousands of holidaymakers around the world every year .... get real time feedback from a massive fan base and let them help you craft your new brochures and selecting your new destiniations.
New hotels taken into your portfolios could have real time feed back on images, videos that would be preferred to be seen in the marketing literature ... plus your fans could indicate their interest in a holiday at the hotel and perhaps even place an option on a booking.
How much less would that cost in research for giving away a few holidays as a trade off for valuing your customer opinions.
REAL ESTATE developers could benefit too ... look forward to your comments

We were fortunate to have Brian speak at ITSMA's conference for IT & Services Marketers this fall...a group with a complex B2B sales cycle, very different from a B2C marketing audience. However, Brian spoke on fundamental truths--like those listed above--that apply to all marketers, and got a great reaction from the crowd.
Here's a quick recap: http://www.itsma.com/ezine/focus-thought-leadership-on-customers-needs/